A normal user's look into the world of 3D Stereo Technologies

Sony is expected to make available their next system software update version 3.70 today for the PlayStation 3 console that will introduces some new stereoscopic 3D related features among other things. The first one is the addition of support for 3D digital photos in MPO (Multi-Picture) format that can now be viewed in 3D on the XMB and in the Photo Gallery application. So if you have a 3D-capable camera that uses this format, you will be able to preview your 3D photos on the PS3 console if you have it connected to a 3D HDTV. The other interesting updates cover the Blu-ray 3D movie playback functionality of the PS3 console. After applying the 3.70 software update you wuill be getting support for playback of Blu-ray Java (BD-J) content recorded on Blu-ray 3D discs as well as support for DTS-HD MA and DTS-HD HR decoding/bit stream output (lossless audio) while playing Blu-ray 3D movies. So you can say that the PS3 is now finally becoming just like a dedicated Blu-ray 3D-capable player, supporting all the extra features you’d expect from such a device, but that on top of the gaming functionality of the console.

Today is an interesting “updates day” for everyone into stereo 3D as Sony has officially released a new version 3.50 firmware for all PlayStation 3 users that brings the much anticipated Blu-ray 3D support to the game console. This is actually the second 3D related firmware update that Sony is releasing after the addition of stereoscopic 3D gaming support in firmware 3.30, so the PS3 is now more functional and can not only be used to play games in stereo 3D mode (still just a few titles), but can also replace the need for a standalone Blu-ray 3D player. So go and update your console to firmware 3.50 if you still haven’t done so, you should however be aware that there are some limitations to what features the PS3 supports in terms of Blu-ray 3D movies…

Limitations on Blu-ray 3D disc playback

– The 3D display of some elements such as menus and subtitles may be different on the PS3 system than on other 3D playback devices (appear in 2D instead of 3D).
– Depending on the content, some BD-J (Blu-ray Disc Java) features such as BONUSVIEW and BD-Live may not play in 3D or may not function properly on the PS3 system.
– When Dolby TrueHD is selected as the audio format, audio will be output in Dolby Digital during playback of Blu-ray 3D content.
– When DTS-HD is selected as the audio format, audio will be output in DTS during playback of Blu-ray 3D content.

On a side note, as I get a lot of questions if any of the 3D DLP projectors can be used together with a PS3 console to output games or movies in stereo 3D, the answer to this question is NO. The reason for that is due to the fact that the PS3’s S3D support relies on the stereoscopic 3D specifications defined in the HDMI 1.4 standard, so the output from the console is based on the frame packing format at 60Hz defined in that standard and on the other hand the format used by 3D DLP projectors is frame sequential at 120Hz. So unless somebody releases an adapter box that converts from one to the other format or builds a 3D DLP projector with such capabilities you will not be able to use your PlayStation 3 for stereoscopic 3D output. This means that you will be either sticking to Sony’s 3D Bravia HDTVs or actually any other brand that has 3D-capable HDTVs using HDMI 1.4(a) as input format for 3D video content input. An alternative would be a 3D DLP HDTV from Mitsubishi and/or maybe Samsung along with a special adapters that are already available that will convert the frame packed content coming from the PS3 to the DLP checkerboard format used by these TVs. So PS3 in stereo 3D and a 3D projectors are still a no go!